CHAPTER 7 - PART 9,10 & 11

Part 9

"Boohoo… Kazuma, are you there? Don't leave me okay?"

"I'm here, of course I'm here, I won't leave you even if the doll comes out, so hurry up."

After dashing madly along the corridor, we hid in a toilet in the vicinity.

Our bodies had reached their limits.

After I finished, I waited by the door for Megumin.

Maybe she was worried about me leaving her behind, she kept talking since a while ago.

"…Erm, Kazuma, it's a bit embarrassing to go to the ladies like this, could you sing a song loudly or something?"

"Why do I have do something so embarrassing like sing a song in front of the toilet! And we will encounter the same thing if we camp outside or visit a dungeon, what would you do then?!"

Although I retorted Megumin, I was actually feeling quite awkward too, so I sang a song to smoothen the atmosphere.

Speaking of songs, I actually only know Japanese songs, so I just randomly hummed an capella.

"… Ermm, you can stop now, Kazuma. That was a weird song, I had never heard of this melody before. I have always wanted to ask, where are you from, Kazuma?"

"I came from a wonderful nation that has the custom of singing before the toilet in the middle of the night, called Japan. Since you are done then come on, let's link up with Aqua and Darkness."

Megumin quietly followed behind me after I casually answered.

Anyway, right now Megumin and I were helpless before the evil spirits.

So we had to link up with Aqua's group as soon as possible.

— And then.

As Megumin and I made our way to the corridor from the toilet…

Clank– clank– clank– clank–

When I heard this sound, I shrunk my body.

Megumin beside me grabbed my sleeve and drew near while trembling.

How scary, dolls were scary.

The doll probably wouldn't kill us, but if you thought about it, being chased by human shaped dolls wearing western style dresses in the middle of the night was horrifying.

The shivering Megumin moved her hands from my sleeve, pointed both hands to the front and was mumbling something…!

"Hey, what are you planning to chant! Are you planning to blow the whole house away?!"

I covered the mouth of Megumin who was chanting explosion magic out of fear. I pushed my entire body onto her to stop her from moving.

— Before we realized it, that clanking sound before the door had stopped.

Megumin grabbed my hand with trembling hands and looked up at me.

Damn it, I had to make a stand!

"Megumin, charge out after the door is open. I just learned 'Drain touch', so I can absorb some mana from the dolls! Even if the dolls attack me, I wouldn't die from that!"

Megumin whose mouth was covered by me nodded after hearing my shout.

"Come at me bro! If you have the guts then do it, evil spirits! My mad dog goddess will teach you a lesson later ahhh!"

I shouted and knocked the door open. Bang! Something collided with the opening door.

That's great, the dolls that might chase us were sent flying from that blow!

I pulled Megumin's hand and dash out of the door, planning to break through in one go…!

"Aqua! Hey Aqua, are you okay!"

As I was planning to run, I turned stiff. Before the door was Aqua who was squatting down, nursing her face, and Darkness who called out to Aqua.

Part 10

"Yes, no more problems. There were plenty of evil spirits here. In the end, I worked until daybreak."

After Aqua purified the last spirit possessing the dolls, she said while looking outside the window which was turning bright.

Even an expert in fighting undead like her took an entire night to dispose of all the spirits in this mansion.

"Hmm, I think we should report this to the guild. Although we didn't take on this quest in the guild, this is a job for adventurers anyway. We might get some unexpected bounty for exorcising all the spirits in this mansion. I also want to know why are there so many spirits turning up in town suddenly."

Everyone agreed with Darkness.

I asked Darkness and Megumin to stay in the mansion to tidy up the place, and head to the guild with Aqua to report to the guild.

On the way there, Aqua and I discussed about exorcising the undead from the house.

"Speaking of which, where was the illegitimate child you mentioned? Didn't you say the spirits won't harm us?"

Aqua hit her fist onto her palm, as if she just thought of something.

"Ahh! That child was present too! Don't worry, this incident was done by the wild spirits from other places. But I think the one who drank my high class wine was that illegitimate child of that noble! Nah, Kazuma, the wine that was drank, could we bill it under necessary expenses…"

I ignored Aqua and extended a hand to open the door into the guild.

"Good morning. It's a bit early, but I have something to report, is it convenient?"

It was really early, but the receptionist onee-san was already working.

"No problem, may I ask what is it?"

Aqua and I explained to her how we took a request from the property agent and went to subjugate the evil spirits in the mansion. The receptionist onee-san took a look at Aqua's adventurer's card and nodded.

By the way, the adventurer's card seemed to record information and the number of monsters you defeat.

"There are many who are seeking help due to the spread of the evil spirits. Since you have successfully repelled the monsters, we should give you some bounty rewards. Thank you for your hard work."

After listening to her, Aqua and I quietly made a victory pose.

The receptionist onee-san continued.

"Sorry for taking your time, but we have found out why the evil spirits were wandering around; here is the report. There is a public cemetery in Axel town right? I don't know who played a prank, creating a giant holy barrier on that cemetery. The spirits in the cemetery had nowhere to go, so they had to go to town and haunt houses where no one was living in…"

— Aqua's body shook for a moment and stiffened.

...

"Excuse me for a moment."

I interrupted the onee-san and pulled Aqua to a corner of the guild.

"Hey, you have some clue right? Tell me!"

"… Yes. Didn't Wiz asked me to periodically visit the cemetery to send the lost spirits to the other world? But going there every now and then is a real hassle right? So I thought if I chase all the spirits in the cemetery away and let them wander around, they will dissipate naturally over time…"

Aqua seemed to have given up struggling, revealing the truth honestly.

Which meant that because of this girl's laziness, the spirits had nowhere to go and came to town.

… How absurd. That didn't make sense no matter how you thought about it.

"… We won't claim the reward from the guild, understood?"

"… Yes."

Aqua nodded guiltily.

"After this, we will head over to the property estate and apologize, since what we did was just like a fraud."

"... Yes. I am very sorry."

After leaving the guild, we decided to go to the real estate shop next…

But I thought we should inform Darkness and Megumin first, so we returned to the mansion and informed the real estate agent who was there.

"Ara ara, I was worried and came to take a look. I didn't expect all the evil spirits to be exorcised!"

Seeing the smiling face of that man and knowing how worried he was about us, I couldn't stand it anymore.

Aqua and I started to explain what happened, and was planning to return the house to that man after finishing the exorcism.

… But.

"I see… But if it is possible, could you please stay here from now on? This house is too big, and there are more evil spirits here than other places, so it has a bad reputation…"

"We are very sorry!" x2

Aqua and I fell on our knees and placed our foreheads onto the ground. The man said in a panic:

"Ahh, it's fine it's fine! Please raise your head. Well then, it's settled– all of you will stay here for now. To dispose of so many spirits proves that you are powerful adventurers. Providing support for adventurers are the obligations of the citizens in this town. And if you continue to live here, the bad reputation of the mansion would gradually fade away…"

In the face of that man's generous suggestion, Aqua and I bowed again.

"Ahh, enough, stop doing that!"

Part 11

There were two conditions for living in this mansion.

Both of them were a bit strange…

"After finishing your adventures, or when eating dinner, you have to chat about your adventures with your companions… That is a strange condition, but it's not very hard."

I muttered to myself as I squatted in the courtyard of the mansion.

That man made some strange request.

The other condition was–

"Kazuma-san, morning! Are you cleaning the tomb?"

As I was squatting near the tomb clearing the grass, I could hear someone talking to me from behind.

I turned back and saw Wiz who looked much better than yesterday.

"Are you alright? Sorry about yesterday, that idiot gave you so much trouble."

"Don't worry, or rather, it's great it had been settled this way. She will definitely not be lonely now."

Wiz said something I don't understand as she smiled at me.

The other condition for living here was– cleaning the small tomb at the corner of the courtyard.

And so, I started weeding the courtyard immediately.

For some reasons, Wiz looked very happy seeing me working hard at weeding.

When I was about to invite her in for a seat, Wiz said she needed to tend to her shop and left after bidding me farewell.

Why did Wiz come here for?

Was she worried about us and came to take a look?

I poured water over the tomb stone and cleaned it.

While doing so, I could made out some vague words on the tomb stone.

This must be the name of the person who was resting here.

It was unclear, but I could see the word 'Anna'.

— Anna… Anna?

Who was that? I think I heard it somewhere recently…

As I was thinking about it before the tomb stone, a shout came from the mansion.

"Kazuma! Lunch is ready, come quick! If you don't come over now, your food will get cold!"

It was Aqua who was sticking her head out from the window of the mansion, waving and shouting at us.

"I know, wait a moment, I will be right there!"

After answering, I used the cloth to wipe the tombstone, cleaning it.

The tombstone displayed the name 'Anna Filante Asteroid' prominently.

I definitely heard this name somewhere…

"Kazuma! Megumin says that for every minute you are late, there will be one less piece of fried meat! Take your time, you don't need to hurry, our lunch would be more bountiful that way."

"Wait for me, how could I let you brutes do that?!"

I finished up cleaning the tomb stone and ran towards the mansion.